#it's like IF hamilton was a commited jacobite and IF that loyalty was shared with the privateers and IF those privateers

[cuddlytogas]

Fyre sent me an article that made me Lose My Mind, so instead of sending 800 tweets about it, I decided to just write up my thoughts here

so, in re: ET Fox, 'Jacobitism and the Golden Age of Piracy' --

Fox is definitely exaggerating. His logic jumps from 'ship names and alleged toasts', to 'every pirate was one contact away from a confirmed Jacobite', to "a Jacobite maritime community" (296), with little evidence beyond each previous assumption. He does demonstrate a link with popular Jacobitism, but overstates pirates' political commitment by far.

There's one letter to George Camocke, a Jacobite naval officer, suggesting that the pirate fleet should unite under his command and take Bermuda as a Jacobite base, but the source is shaky, and it went nowhere once Woodes Rogers ousted the pirates. (It's I think from 1718 and unsigned? Possibly from Charles Vane and his crew? Fox only says that, "Through these contacts [unspecified, between Vane and English Jacobites] a letter reached George Camocke" (286), which is suspiciously vague, and I can't access the original to check. Either way, it would still only prove the committed politics of one crew.)

Fox also makes a lot of Archibald Hamilton, governor of Jamaica from 1710-16, who commissioned and profited from the anti-Spanish privateers who turned pirate and made up some of the original Bahamas pirates c. 1715. Since "it has been suggested that [Hamilton] was a Jacobite supporter" (283), Fox claims that these establishing pirates were also committed Jacobites, and therefore the whole pirate community that grew around them must have been. (Which leads to Fox then being baffled when there's no direct evidence of Jacobitism among some of them, such as the crews of Anstis, Fenn, or Rackham.) He relies on these assumptions, and then claims that every connection between pirates proves their mutual Jacobite sympathies.

It's much more likely (and in line with the historians I've read so far) that the Jacobite toasts and ship names speak to a broader anti-authoritarianism among pirates, with no evidence of committed Jacobite actions by them, eg, specifically targeting Hanoverian ships, or materially supporting or trying to support Jacobite rebels beyond that one letter. Indeed, the 1710s/20s pirates are generally agreed to be distinct for not adhering to religious/national loyalties like the C17th pirates usually did. (I'm so sorry, I haven't consolidated my notes yet, but I know Marcus Rediker goes through this, as does Kris E Lane, and I think Tim Travers and David Cordingly.)

Fox does identify a correlation between the rise and fall of Jacobitism and piracy over the mid/late 1710s, but attributes a pretty shaky causation: pirates ceased their Jacobite loyalties due to the suppression of Jacobitism in Britain and Europe. A much more obvious explanation is that both anti-authoritarian movements simultaneously flourished in the post-war, post-succession instability, then were both quashed as the new regime established itself and cracked down on rebels.

So, did many pirates espouse Jacobite sympathies? Yes! They named their ships in favour of Jacobite causes and rulers, and there are plenty of reports of them toasting to King James / the Pretender. (Which it must be said, although the sheer volume lends a ring of truth to the trend, individual claims should be taken with a grain of salt, as Jacobitism was a common accusation against criminals at the time, with or without a basis.)

Does that mean that the 1710s Caribbean pirate community was centred around a heart of politically committed Jacobites, as Fox argues, or largely motivated by Jacobite sentiments? Yeah, probably not.

Anyway, I am SO sorry that this article got me riled up XD the whole point of this is to say, I've never read anywhere that "many pirates were Jacobites driven out of Britain", which I KNOW wasn't even your main point, but I am unfortunately Insane. We can and should talk about expressions of pro-Jacobitism and actual political engagement among 'Golden Age' pirates, but what we know of their actual actions and espoused ideals doesn't speak to a trend of committed Jacobite politics beyond a general loyalty to rebellious causes.

#history #pirates #pirate history #Jacobites #Jacobitism #Togas does meta #this article annoyed me so much omfg #at every step Fox makes a sort of shaky assumption and then bases his next assumption entirely on that as if it's a proven truth #it's like IF hamilton was a commited jacobite and IF that loyalty was shared with the privateers and IF those privateers #retained and spread that belief among the growing pirate community and IF that was the belief that held the community together #then yeah sure i guess jacobitism was a core cause and concern for the golden age pirates #but that's a lot of fucking 'if's among a situation with a lot more obvious explanations #Fox is right that historians so far are probably ignoring the influence of Jacobitism on golden age pirates a bit #it really hasn't come up in all my reading so far and I've done... a pretty fair amount lol #but he goes so far in the opposite direction that it's kind of embarrassing #very BR Burg coded tbh XD (i say as if i've actually read burg >.> but all the reviews are forming a picture for me...) #EDIT: it's also worth noting that Jacobitism was rarely (never?) a charge laid against pirates in all the trials and moralising against them #which you'd think - if they were actually hardcore individual or broad-base supporters of the cause - might've come up more often #but anti-pirate arguments basically always revolve around the threat to trade and property therefore nation/empire #if lawyers and reverends wanted to argue that pirates were traitors - and they did! - you'd think they'd mention any actual treasons #EDIT EDIT: N: Harry M. Lewis (2021) George Camocke’s 1718 Proposal of a Jacobite–Pirate Alliance #The Mariner's Mirror 107:3 pp366-370 #has better detail and context for that letter